“WHEN the herd moves, it moves” was Boris Johnson’s memorable way of explaining to himself, as he resigned as prime minister on the steps of Downing Street, how he had morphed from historic election winner to unwanted liability.

After years of grazing stubbornly on the same poor patch of soil, is the herd mentality of Scottish public opinion finally shifting ground? Are we seeing not only the collapse into ignominy of the Sturgeon/Murrell era, but the end of the SNP’s long grip on power? Is Mr Yousaf’s destiny simply to be remembered as the shepherd who lost his flock?

Because it remains subject to ongoing police investigation, media comment about the crisis to have engulfed Scotland’s ruling party is necessarily limited – for now. Clearly, something would appear to be wrong, whatever the eventual outcome of any criminal proceedings. As yet, let us recall, neither Mr Murrell nor anyone else has even been charged, never mind convicted.

In the political Scotland the SNP have created, however, it’s only ever the optics that matter.

As the nation’s governing party, the SNP have traded everything on appearances and next to nothing on reality. The reality, as even the party’s internal critics are now finding the courage to say, has been disastrous.

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Under the SNP, life expectancy has fallen in Scotland; it is now lower than in any other part of the UK. Under the SNP, more people die in Scotland from drugs deaths than anywhere else in the developed world.

Under the SNP, the attainment gap in Scottish schools remains as wide as ever, despite Nicola Sturgeon claiming it would be her “defining mission” to close it. By her own definition, then, she failed miserably.

Under the SNP, NHS waiting-time targets are now so routinely missed that the matter is no longer regarded as newsworthy. It’s almost as if we have given up on the Scottish NHS.

And, as if this is not woeful enough, under the SNP Scotland has one of the largest budget deficits in the world – spending on public services in Scotland is around 30% higher than it is south of the border (thanks to the Barnett Formula). Yet, despite this, Scotland has the highest income tax rates anywhere in the UK – those rates being set, of course, by the SNP in Holyrood and not by the UK government in Westminster.

That’s the reality which Ms Sturgeon has bequeathed to her chosen successor – indeed, as a senior minister in Ms Sturgeon’s administration that is the reality which Mr Yousaf has himself helped to create.

The Herald: Nicola SturgeonNicola Sturgeon (Image: free)

It is no surprise, then, that for more than a generation the SNP have preferred to focus on mere appearance, hoping that enough wool can be pulled over enough people’s eyes for long enough to obscure and blur the harsh truth of the Scotland they have created.

What they care about is not the delivery of public services nor even the creation and nurturing of a prosperous economy. Their mission is simply to give the impression – to nurture the optics – of promoting what they call “progress”. It is the First Minister’s favourite word.

What matters to him is that we are “progressive” on silencing speech with which we disagree (that’s what his Hate Crime Bill was all about).

What matters is that we are “progressive” on so over-promoting trans rights that we forget about the underlying women’s rights upon which they depend.

What matters is that we manifest our green “progressive” credentials even if we know with every fibre of our being that current hare-brained schemes favoured by the government (such as the deposit return scheme) are exactly that – hare-brained.

Success, for this party, is not measured in the hard currency of what actually works. All that matters are the optics – that the appearance of “progressiveness” is maintained.

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This contrast, between mere appearances and hard reality, is not new to Mr Yousaf, although it is certainly his defining characteristic. He has inherited it from his predecessor. For a long time, she got away with it, most remarkably during the years of Covid lockdown. The reality is that the SNP’s handling of Covid saved no more lives than did Mr Johnson’s altogether more ramshackle approach. But the contrast between Boris Johnson’s chaotic demeanour and the dour puritanism of Ms Sturgeon could hardly have been greater.

Victories of style over substance come at a cost, however, the price being the hollowing out of politics so that it becomes mere performance – show business for ugly people, as the old American adage has it. This is the climate in which Mr Yousaf has risen without trace, a climate in which hollowness triumphs and where appearance is all. It doesn’t matter if promises are empty and if pledges go unmet. All that matters is that the show must go on.

This is why, politically, it may be of little consequence what the criminal justice system in the end delivers in respect of its ongoing inquiries into SNP finances. Delivery is immaterial in the hollowed-out world of Scottish politics. In this world, mere optics are everything. Those images of police vehicles and a forensics tent erected outside the Murrell/Sturgeon household are all we needed.

Thus, whatever the reality, the damage has been done. Poor Mr Yousaf, that emptiest of men, that master of vacuity, that hollow soul, knows this more keenly than anyone. The herd senses it, too, which is why it is finally deserting the SNP’s patch, in search of pastures new.

Adam Tomkins was a Conservative MSP for the Glasgow region from 2016 to 2021